Internet access problems: Windows XP

Hello,

I am currently helping my girlfriend resolve her current computer problem. What is happening is that her computer is no longer connecting to webpages on any browser(she uses IE and Mozilla Firefox). She still can connect to the internet for programs such as Norton Antivirus and AdAware. So far I have tried everything I can think of to fix her problem. I have contacted her computer's and her ISP's tech support (both which confirmed that there's something wrong with the computer and not the internet connection). I have run every adware, spyware, malware, trojan, and virus scan I can think of, and I have done all of the methods on your tutorial. I feel I am at the end of my rope, as she is still unable to access webpages. I have taken a hijack this log, and I am begging for any kind of help. The last resort is to format her hard drive, and I don't want it to come to that just yet. I thank anyone in advance for any help they can give.

 

Greetings and welcome to MajorGeeks.

What operating system is she using?

Has her browser been able to connect in the past?

Does the computer work okay otherwise?

Any error messages when it can't connect?

Is there any firewall or security software running in the background that could be blocking access?

 

What operating system is she using? Windows XP Home

Has her browser been able to connect in the past? Yeah. This is a recent problem.

Does the computer work okay otherwise? Yeah.

Any error messages when it can't connect? No error messages aside from the 404 messages in the browser.

Is there any firewall or security software running in the background that could be blocking access? Nope.

 

Try rebooting into "Safe Mode with Networking" and see if you can connect.

 

I was.....sorta able to connect in safe mode. I went to MajorGeeks.com and it did connect, but it was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally slow. Once the page loaded, I tried to click on the support forums, and after about 5 minutes, I got a "page cannot be displayed" error.

I really appreciate the help and advice you're giving me by the way.

 

On your start menu in the Mozilla Firefox folder there should be a shortcut to start Mozilla Firefox in Safe Mode, Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode), then see if Firefox will start and connect that way. If so, close and restart Firefox in normal mode, if it fails you have a registry problem. Sorry but the only way I know how to fix that is uninstall Firefox and reinstall it. Make sure you have the latest version, that would be 1.0.3. Internet Explorer is a different animal altogether, I have never sucessfully repaired IE without a complete reinstall of IE.

 

Sounds more like a busted winsock issue. download and run this.

 

No it's definately not a Winsock issue. Winsock fix was the first thing I tried when I went to fix her computer.

Some other things we did and noticed:

She took her computer to her dad's house and tried using his internet. She still couldn't connect, so it's definately not the ISP.

We had a friend of ours, who is a member of the Best Buy Geek Squad, look at the computer. He said there is definately no spyware, browser hijack, or viruses.

Whenever the computer boots up, a white box shows up in the taskbar, and dissapears within 30 sec. This has never happened until recently.

It appears to be a very mysterious problem.

 

Noni, I know Insomniac ask about firewalls, but was there ever a firewall installed on the system then unistalled. Sometimes they leave parts of the firewall on the system. That could be causing your problem. ZoneAlarm can and has caused this kind of behaviour in the past.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318378
http://help.expedient.com/browsers/errors.shtml

 

http://help.expedient.com/browsers/routing.shtml

 

Zone Alarm has not been installed in the computer, but I did ask, and Windows Firewall is in the computer due to Service Pack 2.

Some other things that we tried(as recommended in kadavill's provided links and also recommended by HP's tech support):

Reparing Windows XP with the recovery disks.

Uninstalling and reinstalling IE.

System Restore twice, but that has been disabled now because of the possibility that System Restore brought back the problem as well.

Another note: A lot of the provided links to microsoft sites were broken links. I tried to access them from my computer, which is not experiencing these problems.

Thanks again.

 

Try reinstalling the modem drivers.

 

Try deleting complete cache and cookies.

 

Cache and cookies have been deleted already. Same problem unfortunately.

I can reinstall the modem drivers, but how do I go about doing that? She's also using a cable connection, so the modem is inactive at this time.

 

Ok, I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time, but it sounds like the Windows Firewall may be blocking the browsers from accessing the web.

Normally, I wouldn't recommend disabling the Firewall, but If you can't download and install one of the free firewalls, then disable the Windows Firewall and connect and see if the problem goes away. Just connect to a know site that you believe is safe.

Free Firewalls:
Kerio Personal Firewall http://majorgeeks.com/download738.html
Outpost Firewall Free http://majorgeeks.com/download1056.html
Sygate Personal Firewall Free http://majorgeeks.com/download3356.html
ZoneAlarm Free http://majorgeeks.com/download388.html

Kerio Persoanl Firewall says it is shareware, but is indeed free for personal/home use.

If this doesn't slove your problem, you just may have to backup the drive and fully reinstall the OS.

 

Try reinstalling tcp/ip as well.
Network connections>rightclick the connection>properties>networking>tcp/ip>install

 

Noni, this is the Microsoft Article on Troubleshooting Windows Firewall settings in Windows XP Service Pack 2 goto http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875357

Hopefully this helps you.

 

I appreciate all of your help, and I have tried everything suggested, but it seems the problem is still at large.

I'm going to reccommend that she backup her hard drive and reinstall windows.

 

Make sure you do a clean install, or the problem may come back.

Good Luck.

 

Just some other random info:

Tried out the wireless connection and it's flawless.
She could also connect to LimeWire and download fine, but the connection quality fluctuated between Poor and Good fairly often.

Could this be a hardware problem? Or are there any settings that may have been changed that could affect this? (She has XP Pro btw, not Home like I originally said) Trying to avoid a total reinstall because she's in the middle of her last semester and doing papers/finals... also why we don't want to ship it out to HP..

 

There are several things that can effect the signal quality. Physical Location, distance, obstructions, Line of sight, Hardware, and many other environmental factors.

More like distance & obstructions are the main causes of the signal degradation.

Other than that are IE and Firefox connecting consistently.

 

Here's what she said to me in aim(since her aim seems to be working).

"Sometimes its instantly a dns error, other times it'll try to load and not, sometimes it loads no problem (unless its a login page)... it did it on my dad's dsl line as well, there it was just no connection whatsoever."

 

http://www.updatexp.com/dns-windows-xp.html

 

Just thought about this, have you tried to reconfigure the internet connection with the Internet Connection Wizard.